ARAI - ABS in Motorcycles above 125cc Proposed!

Snapshot: ARAI takes on the mantle to create a safer country for 2 wheeler Riders!

We live in a dangerous nation when it comes to road safety, the amount of chaos we have to deal with while travelling on road everyday is just staggering and coming out unhurt and alive at the end of the day is in fact become a good achievement. It becomes a even more serious, the gravity of the road safety condition in our country, where two wheeled commuting and riding is involved. Still even after all that, two-wheeler safety in India has been highly ignored and been an issue we have discussed at great lengths as well. While Europe and other developed markets get basic safety systems like ABS even on the basic 125cc motorcycles, certain automakers choose to avoid the same altogether even on their high performance offerings. However, the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) has been keenly looking into the issue and has proposed mandating Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS) on all two-wheelers 125cc and above.

ARAI is currently devising the regulations for mandatory ABS that will be later proposed to the central ministry and will get the final approval from the concerned authorities. Currently a homologation service provider, ARAI is expanding its capabilities as the research authority of the automotive industry with a new and massive safety laboratory completely equipped with a crash test centre for passenger vehicles that will be operational by April 2015 and will be opened for the industry by June. For two-wheelers however, ARAI does not have a dedicated test track of its own and uses the DRDO’s Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (VRDE) test track in Ahmednagar. This facility is also witnessing upgrades at present.

Furthermore, ARAI said that the government is keen on bringing ABS on two-wheelers and even though the technology is expensive today, it believes that the stability offered on vehicles should be given more importance. The ABS mandate on motorcycles and scooters with an engine displacement above 125cc also depends on the readiness of the industry to equip the vehicles with ABS as well as the completion of the VRDE test track in Ahmednagar. Once the preliminary changes are in place, the implementation could come in as early as 2017.